Thursday 19 April 2012

Corfiot Easter ...

Liz and Sandra having a midnight tipple watching fireworks.
 We set off early on Friday morning to catch the 8:30 ferry from Igoumenitsa to Corfu.  We were unsure if there would be a manic rush for the boat or not as the unions who crew the ferries had been on strike the previous two days and Corfu is a very popular destination for Easter in Greece.


Liz' home made hot cross buns - slurp..
As it turned out there was no backlog from the strike it's even possible that the ferries were unaffected by it.  So we arrived on Kerkera island (Corfu) an hour and a half later and had to find the MacDonald's to satisfy Tony's fetish, if there's a big Mac within driving distance then Tony will be there!  That priority out of the way then we headed for Gouvia Marina to have a look at the boats we had arranged to see.


Looks nice eh! name change needed though.
We looked at several Yachts and to be honest some of them really did need a lot of work.  There was a 39 foot Apollo which I quite liked the look of but Sandra thought it was far too big and with the benefit of hindsight it still needed quite a bit of money spending on it and was already at the very top of our budget.  We had a word with Colin the broker about the Gibsea we had looked at which were fine but the layout was not to our taste and he said that there were some more which would be coming up soon and they may even sell them now, if we would like to have a look he would arrange it with the manager of the charter company Mick.

Out with them old pots!
When we got on board Sandra was a much happier bunny she loved it, and although she's only a small Yacht, we will have plenty of room on board especially if we put an awning over the cockpit for winter which will give us an extra room.  So this lady hopefully will become the latest family member.  She is not available until September due to charter commitments but that suits us fine as we don't get back back from the UK until then after our summer break.

Look at the size of that one!
Saturday we were up good and early to get into Corfu town for the parade and to witness the peculiar local custom of throwing pots out of the apartments.  There seems to be several reasons for doing this which range from clearing out the house to ladies trying to catch an available mate, although if it were the latter they are likely to kill them as the bigger pots took three of four people to lift them being made of thick terracotta and five feet tall and about two feet in diameter!  There were hundreds thrown into the streets from all the building around the main square and a crowd of many thousands watching the spectacle.

Part of the parade through Corfu.
 There were many marching bands and of course the typical Greek religious processions with bier's carrying various bits of long dead saints through the town surrounded by the great and the good of the area.

Later we took Liz for a tour of the north of the Island as she had never been there before.  We love the north of Corfu (with the exception of a couple of "little Britain" resorts) and it's always nice to go back and see it again.  The day was finished by sitting on the balcony of our apartment and watching all the fireworks over Corfu town.

 Returning home on Sunday afternoon we took the coastal road from Igoumentisa and visited Sivota and Parga on the mainland which again was worth worth doing as we were passing so close.
Part of the crowd in Corfu town.

Monday was the annual curry cup race to from Nidri to Paleros which traditionally culminates in an Indian meal at the panorama taverna in Paleros.   Due to the very inclement weather we are currently having especially the high winds there were only five boat participated but we drove across for the curry, can't resist a curry!

Yesterday we had Linda and Ray and also Tree and Mike across for late lunch, as usual we had a super meal meal together with lots and lots of chat.

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